The Wilmington and Northern Railroad was a regional railroad in the northeastern United States that operated between Wilmington, Delaware, and Reading, Pennsylvania from 1877 to 1976. It became part of the Reading Railroad system in 1898, became a paper railroad under their control in 1900 and went bankrupt with it in 1971. It still exists on paper as a subsidiary of Reading International, Inc.
The line originated with the Wilmington and Reading Railroad, which constructed the main route from Wilmington to Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, between 1869 and 1871. An extension to High's Junction (in South Reading next to High's Hill) was completed in 1874, where it connected to the Berks County Railroad for access into Reading. After the Berks County Railroad was foreclosed and reorganized under the control of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road (“Reading”), the Wilmington and Reading also fell into financial distress and was foreclosed in 1876. It was reorganized in 1877 as the Wilmington and Northern Railroad.
Following its reorganization, the Wilmington and Northern operated in close affiliation with the Reading but maintained separate management until 1898, when the Reading acquired a controlling interest and integrated it into its system. The segment from Wilmington to Birdsboro became the Wilmington and Northern Branch, while the northern extension was incorporated into the Reading Belt Line. Despite this integration, the Wilmington and Northern continued to exist nominally as a corporate entity within the Reading system.
In the modern era, the line was gradually dismantled. The portion north of Modena, Pennsylvania, was transferred to Conrail in 1976, while the southern segment was retained by the Wilmington and Northern and later leased or sold in sections between 1981 and 2005.
First predecessors and construction The first predecessor of the Wilmington and Northern to be organized was the Wilmington and Brandywine Railroad, chartered in Delaware on March 5, 1861. It was to build from the Christina River at or near Wilmington to the state line in the direction of Parkesburg, Pennsylvania, with the power to consolidate with a connecting railroad in Pennsylvania from Parkesburg, Coatesville, or Downingtown. It was permitted to build branches, but the main line and branches were not to come nearer than to any of the DuPont powder works. On 5 February 1865, the Wilmington and Brandywine changed its name to the Delaware and Pennsylvania State Line Railroad.
The Berks and Chester Railroad was incorporated on April 20, 1864, and was authorized to build from Birdsboro (in Berks County, Pennsylvania) to a connection with any railroad in Chester County, Pennsylvania. A charter supplement on March 13, 1866, allowed the Berks and Chester to connect to and merge with the Delaware and Pennsylvania State Line.
The two were consolidated as the Wilmington and Reading Railroad on May 29, 1866. The directors of the consolidated company were Edward and George Brooke, Hiester Clymer, L. Heber Smith, Hugh E. Steele, Charles E. Pennock, Charles Huston, Joseph Tatnall, Edward Betts, Joshua T. Heald, Francis Barry, James Bradford, and William S. Hilles. The first seven were ironmasters in Berks and northern Chester County, owning works along or near the proposed railroad, while the latter six were Wilmington businessmen. In addition to the industries along its route, supporters of the Wilmington and Reading anticipated that it would carry both anthracite and bituminous coal shipments furnished by the Reading, both to reach new markets along its line and to ship by water from Wilmington (relieving congestion at the Reading's Port Richmond docks).
Surveys for the line were carried out in the summer of 1866, between Wilmington and Elverson, Pennsylvania (then known as Springfield). Three routes were examined between Wilmington and the West Branch Brandywine Creek near the mouth of Buck Run (the site of Steele's Laurel Iron Works); the railroad's charter restrictions forced them to avoid the Brandywine in the vicinity of Hagley Yards. The first route ran from Wilmington over the hills to the northwest, dropping into the valley of the Brandywine at Twaddell's Ford, ten miles above the city. The second route was surveyed up the Red Clay Creek via Marshallton, Delaware, Kennett Square and Unioniville, and the third even further west by way of Avondale. The first route was ultimately adopted by the company. From there it was to pass up the West Branch to Coatesville, cross into the watershed of the East Branch near Isabella Furnace, and then run via Elverson and down the valley of Hay Creek to Birdsboro, crossing the Schuylkill River to connect with the Reading. Branches were projected to Downingtown and West Chester to connect with the Chester Valley Railroad and the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad but were never built. It addition to the Reading, it connected to the East Brandywine & Waynesburg Railroad at Suplee; Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad at Chadds Ford; to the Pennsylvania Railroad's Main Line at Coatesville and to the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad at Delaware Junction (just west of Wilmington).
The railroad's board was slightly rearranged at the annual meeting of the stockholders in March 1867. George Brooke, Smith, and Bradford left the board, and were replaced by Sheshbazzar B. Worth, another Coatesville ironmaster, and Victor and Irénée du Pont, of the gunpowder-making du Pont family. At the subsequent directors' meeting, Edward Brooke was chosen president, while Hilles was chosen secretary and treasurer. The company also obtained a charter supplement on February 25, 1867, allowing them to extend their rail line from the Christina to the Delaware River and build wharves and piers. Brooke was replaced as president by Steele in January 1868; Heald and Barry left the board to be replaced by two other Wilmingtonians, Evan C. Stotsenburg and Charles Warner.
The first revenue movement over the new railroad was a freight train from Coatesville south to Embreeville, Pennsylvania on July 28, 1869. Passenger service was inaugurated with a special train from Coatesville to Wilmington, where it accessed the PW&B line, on December 24, 1869. In the following year, construction continued north along the West Branch to Hibernia, site of an iron furnace, and on to Birdsboro and the Reading connection. The line to Birdsboro was opened for service on June 22, 1870.. Later an access spur was built in Wilmington to commercial interests along Madison Street as far as N. 2nd.
Berks County extension and bankruptcy The railroad's terminus at Birdsboro, some distance below Reading, Pennsylvania on the Schuylkill, made it dependent entirely on the Philadelphia and Reading for coal traffic. The Reading's efforts to control shipment of coal from the Schuylkill coalfields were resented by many in the region, and while the Wilmington and Reading was still in construction, observers noted that extending it to Pottsville or other points in the coal region would free it from dependence on the Reading and provide an independent outlet for the region's coal. The Manufacturers and Consumers Anthracite Railroad, a paper railroad chartered in 1866, was suggested as a vehicle for such an extension. In 1870, Asa Packer, president of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, proposed a similar project to build a rail line from the Lehigh Valley at Slatington, Pennsylvania around or through Reading to a connection with the Wilmington and Reading. The proposed line was chartered in 1871 as the Berks County Railroad. Several of the Wilmington and Reading directors were on the board, and the new railroad was looked upon as essentially an extension of the Wilmington and Reading. The junction point between the two railroads was ultimately set at High's Junction or Poplar Neck (later Cumru Junction), along the Schuylkill just below Reading, and the Wilmington and Reading began constructing a branch from Birdsboro to that point in 1874, this became the "Reading Branch'.
The adventure proved to be a disastrous one for the company. Franklin B. Gowen, the aggressive president of the Reading, fiercely resisted the construction of the Berks County Railroad, and was rumored to have threatened to embargo the Lehigh Valley's coal trade if it cooperated with the venture. The Panic of 1873 ushered in a long depression that badly eroded the financial position of the railroads and of the Wilmington and Reading's directors. The Berks County Railroad was the first to fall; it was foreclosed in late 1874 and was reorganized as the Reading and Lehigh Railroad, under the presidency of the Reading's counsel, George F. Baer. The Wilmington and Reading attempted to assert its rights to operate the Reading and Lehigh under lease, but was unsuccessful; its rolling stock was ejected from the Reading and Lehigh north of Court Street, Reading, and the Reading and Lehigh was leased to the Reading on March 11, 1875.
Collapse soon followed for the Wilmington and Reading, which failed to make an interest payment on its bonds on April 1, 1875, and investors were left scrambling. Various expedients were looked to in the hopes of saving the railroad. In 1874, the South Mountain Railroad had announced its intention of building a branch to Reading, and hope was expressed that the Pennsylvania Railroad might lease the Wilmington and Reading and direct traffic via that branch. While the Pennsylvania had been interested in the South Mountain as a route for coal to New England, it lost interest after the Panic and that railroad was never opened. Anticipating that the satisfaction of the bondholders' claims would leave nothing for the stockholders, the directors entered into negotiations with W. O. Leslie, a Philadelphia railroad promoter. Leslie was the president of the Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York Railroad, which enjoyed very broad charter rights in Pennsylvania and Maryland, but had little else to show in the way of assets except for a bit of grading near Towsontown, Maryland. Contemporary newspapers speculated that Leslie was secretly backed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, but this was not the case. Almost all of the stock was issued to Leslie (who never paid in his subscription on it). The two companies agreed to merge on May 31, 1875, but no particular change occurred in the running of the railroad, which defaulted on its mortgage later in the year and was placed in the hands of commissioners to operate. The vague hopes entertained that the Baltimore and Ohio would invest in the Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, or that its bonds could be readily placed in London, restoring some investment to the stockholders, failed to materialize.
Reorganization